Payments NEXT • November 21 2023

Will Black Friday and 2023 holiday sales be in the black?

With Black Friday imminent, we’ve got a rundown of predictions for the 2023 holiday shopping season kickoff from US retail analysts and research groups. Overall, projections are encouraging, with new record-level sales up from 2% to 4% over last year.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects record sales to increase by 3% to 4% over 2022, reaching nearly $966.6 billion through the holiday season.

“It is not surprising to see holiday sales growth returning to pre-pandemic levels,” NRF Presi

Payments NEXT • September 22 2021

Global CNP fraud hits 13%, costs to merchants rising fast

A 15-month research study by global payments provider Vesta shows that from 10% to as many as 13% of card-not-present (CNP), online transactions may be fraudulent.

Coupled with annual e-commerce growth of 32.4% in the US and 27.6% globally, the result is tens of millions of dollars of lost revenue by fraud, the cost of chargebacks, and impact on company reputation and future consumer business.

Between January 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, Vesta tracked transactions globally by merchants on its

Payments NEXT • June 24 2021

Consumers in hardship programs made payments during Covid

The pandemic imposed terrible health and financial hardships on consumers everywhere, with an estimated 7.48% of US mortgage accounts in “hardship status” by May 2020. Just two months earlier, in March 2020, before the full impact of Covid-19, mortgage accounts in trouble were only 0.48%.

Similarly, car loans in trouble jumped from 0.64% in March 2020 to 7.04% in May 2021, while credit card accounts in hardship increased from 0.01% to 3.73%, along with unsecured personal loans from 1.56% to 6.1

Payments NEXT • January 24 2020

NYC bans cashless-only payments in stores and restaurants

New York City, the country’s largest, became the third US city to banish cashless-only transactions following similar bans in San Francisco and Philadelphia as well as the ban imposed by the state of New Jersey.

Critics have long claimed cashless-only transactions disadvantage the poor, the un-banked, and those without digital resources.

The New York ban was originally proposed in 2018 by NYC councilor Ritchie Torres and now goes to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office for final signoff.

The new law

Payments NEXT • October 17 2019

Research: What Gen Z wants is not their father’s bank

Let’s start with what Gen Z and younger consumers want from their banks. They want digital, mobile, and instant banking services. In other words, not their dad’s bank.

What they’ve got right now from an entrenched banking system is too much paperwork, too many off-line interactions, and a lack of digital banking services that meet their needs and expectations.

82% will switch for better digital

One of the key findings from a recent survey by Lightico is that 82% of these young bank customers

September 9 2019

Target circles back to cashback rewards for customers – Cashback Industry News

Target is revamping its customer loyalty program and will launch Target Circle, a free nationwide loyalty program that gives shoppers personalized deals and supports local non-profit organizations.

The new loyalty program will launch in October and gives customers a 1% cashback reward on every purchase which they can spend on future Target shopping. “Our goal is to motivate all guests to choose Target more often by providing meaningful benefits,” said Target’s chief marketing and digital office

Payments NEXT • September 2 2019

US drunk shoppers spent $39.4 billion in 2018

It’s Labor Day, so we thought we’d keep things a little lighter than usual here on Payments NEXT.

This just in. Americans have got the message about the dangers of drunk driving, but apparently, they missed the memo about drunk shopping. Recent research shows that boozing buyers spent $39.4 billion shopping in 2018 while under the influence in-store and online.

In the latest Drunk Shopping Survey from finder.com, 26% of Americans admit to shopping while drunk. That’s 53.4 million shoppers stum

Payments NEXT • July 16 2019

EBANX sees growth and opportunity in Latin America

Put aside any preconceived ideas or misconceptions about e-commerce in Latin America. E-commerce in the region is growing at 25% to 30% and past barriers to doing business and handling payments are fast disappearing with the growth of e-commerce, mobile adoption, new payments options, and improvements in logistics.

“E-commerce — including everything from retail to travel and digital goods — is growing at a pace of 25% to 30% per year in Latin America, and there are no signs of it slowing, as th

Blockcoin Today • May 21 2019

US Copyright Office says Craig Wright claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto

US Copyright Office says Craig Wright claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto

With the April 11, 2019, US copyright registration no. TXu 2-136-996, the US Copyright Office said that Australian Dr. Craig Wright claims he is Satoshi Nakamoto.

The registration covers the paper entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” created in 2008 and published in 2009 anonymously by Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity has never been before, confirmed.

The copyright registration claims the author as Craig

Blockcoin Today • December 14 2018

Buy a brick, build Trump’s Wall with bitcoin

It’s bad enough that bitcoin is being used for a bunch of fake bomb threats across the US and Canada today.

Now, Republican Congressman Warren ‘Crypto’ Davidson would like Americans, and maybe Mexicans, to “Buy a Brick, Build a Wall” with bitcoin.

This could take government services and crowdfunding to a new level. It could even be used to avoid a shutdown, couldn’t it?

In an NPR radio interview with host Steve Inskeep, Davidson outlined his ‘off-the-wall‘ new funding strategy for US border s